Playing Poker
by A Writer With Mixed Interests
Summary: Four of the cabin group members play poker on a normal rainy day, while one beginner somehow has a lucky winning streak. Based on a headcanon of mine that has nearly 150 notes on Tumblr. *Written with Assassin's Creed Master.*


**Playing Poker**

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**So...this is an idea that just randomly popped into my overstimulated brain one day. XD This is based on a headcanon that I posted on Tumblr that got over 100 notes. The story takes place roughly two months before the events of my take on Season 2, Through Rose-Tinted Glasses.**

**This story was written with the help of Assassin's Creed Master. He's help me out a lot and he's a great author, be sure to check out his stories. **

**Disclaimer: All of the characters in this story belong to Telltale Games. **

**Enjoy! :D**

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It was a particularly rainy day at the cabin in the woods in the state of North Carolina. Luke and Nick were playing poker at the kitchen table, Pete was outside on watch, Carlos was in the living reading some old newspaper, Sarah was upstairs playing, and Alvin and Rebecca were in their bedroom, just talking.

Nick threw his cards down, a satisfied smirk crossing his lips. "Three of a kind."

"Straight flush," Luke's brown eyes were filled with laughter as he threw his own cards down.

"What in the hell?" Nick barked unhappily, looking at Luke's cards with a surprised blink. "No way in hell you just beat me. Again."

Luke shrugged. "Sorry, Nick."

"You're cheating," Nick accused, his eyes narrowing. "What has my uncle been teachin' you?"

"I'm not cheating," Luke promised. "Come on, man, don't be such a spoilsport-"

"I am _not_ a spoilsport!" Nick whined, crossing his arms.

"What are you guys doing?"

Both men turned to the new voice in the room, looking at the curious eyes of Sarah. She had probably gotten bored being alone and wanted to talk to someone.

"Losing my ass," Nick grumbled, barely paying her any attention.

"Nick," Luke said in a warning tone. He averted his gaze to look at Sarah, smiling at her lightly. "Hey, Sarah. We're just playin' a little poker while we wait for this rain to stop."

"What's poker?" Sarah inquired.

"It's a game you play with cards, Sarah," Luke explained, but it left Sarah with a curious eyebrow raised.

"Oh," Sarah replied. "Is this the game Nick always gets mad at?"

"I'm the only one who plays fair!" Nick protested. But he tried to calm down, as he wasn't really on about upsetting Sarah and getting Carlos on his ass about it. He offered her a small smile. "Wanna learn how to play?"

Sarah nodded, and Luke patted the end seat of the kitchen table.

"Okay, Sarah, Pete is the best one at poker, but since he's busy, I'll teach you how to play poker," Luke assured as he grabbed a deck of cards and began to shuffle them.

Over the next few minutes, Luke began to teach Sarah the basics...twice since she was confused at first, but then she assured them she understood. Now it was time for the trio to play an actual game.

"What do you want to bet, Sarah?" Nick inquired.

Sarah dug around in her pocket, and pulled out a peppermint. "This is all I have," she spoke shyly.

"Nah, it's all right. We all usually bet with small pretzels. Winner keeps them," Luke reassured, getting out from his chair to get another big bag of pretzels. He sat back down and tipped them out, giving fifty to Sarah, fifty to Nick and fifty for himself. He placed the remaining ones back.

"Ohhh, okay," Sarah nodded understandably. "But we're not allowed to look at other people's cards, right?"

"Tell that to Luke," Nick half-joked, half-hissed.

"Haha, very funny," Luke sarcastically replied before turning his attention towards Sarah. "Yeah, that's right. You can't look until everyone puts down their cards at the end.

Nick opened his mouth to make a comment, but closed it then, and changed the subject. "I bet twenty pretzels."

"I'll call that," Luke said, pushing twenty pretzels in the center of the table whilst keep one eye on his cards.

For a moment, Sarah had to think of the word before she remembered it. "Stick!" she exclaimed. The door to the kitchen opened, and in walked Carlos. "Hi, Dad!"

"Hello, Sarah," Carlos greeted, obviously no longer reading the old newspaper and decided to go and see what everyone was up to. He arched an eyebrow and folded his arms together when seeing his daughter with two cards in her hands. "What are you doing?"

"We're playing a game of poker," Luke answered, but he did not bother to make eye-contact with the doctor.

Carlos gave them a look that clearly said, "Why are you involving my daughter?"

Luke noticed Carlos expression and attempts to convince him they were doing nothing bad with Sarah. He knew how protective Carlos was with Sarah, but he understood he loved her and only wanted to protect her. "Don't worry, Carlos, it's just a friendly game of poker. No one gets hurt."

Carlos continued to look unsure, but he decided to allow Sarah to play cards with them. After all, she rarely got to do anything interesting. "Okay, Sarah can continue playing." he turned around and proceeded to leave the kitchen to get back to do something different.

"Yay!" Sarah exclaimed, happy that her father was actually letting her do something for once.

"Okay," Luke skeptically trailed off and eyes his cards carefully. Maybe this was the reason Pete always beat him. "Okay, I'm going to check."

Nick was the dealer and placed three cards together in a line together across the table. He eyed his cards carefully and rubbed his fingers against his chin.

Sarah looked from Luke to Nick, wondering what they were gonna do now.

Deciding to raise the stakes a little, Luke pushed forward thirty pretzels and waited for their next move. "I raise thirty pretzels."

Nick called that and so did Sarah. Nick placed another card on the table before looking back to his own. The three of them checked again and Nick puts down the final card. Now they were near the end.

Luke looked towards his cards and his face sighed in annoyance when he did not get the other card he wanted. He sighed and placed his cards on the table, revealing he had two Kings. "I got three of a kind. I was hoping I'd get a straight if only that two was a three."

Nick slammed his cards down, grinning widely. He revealed to have a flush. "Finally! Fucking _finally!_ I win!" He jumped up so fast that the chair knocked to the ground. "YES!"

Sarah looked from Nick, back to her cards. She slowly put them down on the table and hoped that Nick wouldn't be mad at her. "...I got a straight flush."

Nick looks in shock and his eyes widened like he is going to pass out.

Luke could not help but laugh at his best friend's failure. He turned towards Sarah and praised her for winning, especially her first game. Beginner's luck was true after all. "Good job, Sarah."

"No...there's no way," Nick argued, gripping the chair and shaking his head in denial.

"Can we play again?" Sarah asked, seeming to be oblivious to his childish act.

The three of them heard laughter in the doorway. They turned and saw Pete in the open doorway, leaning against the wall.

"Well, well, looks like we got ourselves a new poker player. Good, I was getting tired of beating Luke all the time," Pete replied whilst he chuckled in between words.

Nick looked like he was about to explode like a volcano.

"Nick..." Luke trailed off in a warning tone. He turned his attention back towards Sarah and beamed her a smile. "Sure, Sarah, we can play again. You joining in, Pete?"

"Sure, Alvin's taken over my watch shift anyway," Pete agreed, seating himself around the table in between Luke and Nick.

Now that Pete was sitting next to Nick by his left side, it was his turn to deal. He took the cards and began shuffling them whilst Luke gave him some pretzels. Sarah took all of her winnings and placed them in front of her.

Nick still shook his head in disbelief. Here he was, hardly ever winning a poker game in all his life, but then Sarah, a _kid_ who never played poker a day in her life, came in and won her very first game.

Nick assumed it was beginner's luck, but there was no way he was going to let Sarah win him. It was bad enough Luke always beat him, but if Sarah and Pete were to beat him all the time as well, he might as well just go to his room and scream into a pillow.

Pete dealt out the cards and waited until everyone picked up their cards before looking at his own. He studied Luke and Nick's faces and tried to find out if they were nervous or happy. He had a gift where he could tell if someone was telling the truth or lying. However, when he tried it on Sarah, it did not work. He could not tell.

Pete put down his cards and decided to stick for now. "Check."

Luke did the same and placed his cards on the table. "Check."

Nick eyed everyone, his focus mostly on Sarah to make sure she wasn't cheating, but then he placed his cards down as well. "Check."

"I'll raise ten pretzels!" Sarah declared enthusiastically, taking out said many pretzels and placing them in the middle. She was beginning to like poker, and not only because she had won the first time she ever played.

The game continued, and before everyone knew it, it was time to reveal cards.

Luke sighed in defeat and placed his cards onto the table, revealing he only got one pair which were two sevens. "I only got one pair."

"I got a full house," Pete declared, revealing his cards to show he had quite a high chance of winning. He leaned back and folded his arms together, waiting for Sarah and his nephew to reveal their cards.

Nick looked at his cards in horror for a moment, before slamming his head on the table and keeping it there. He was probably dangerously close to screaming. Pete looked at his cards and laughed quietly.

"Shut the fuck up!" Nick moaned.

Nick had got a high card which meant he had nothing.

"Nick, it's just a game," Pete reminded in a soothing tone, hoping to keep him from losing his temper, especially with Sarah present.

All eyes (exception of Nick) all met Sarah, waiting for her to reveal her cards, although Pete was sure he had won.

Once Sarah was sure that no one was going to speak up, she lowered her cards. "This is a royal flush, right?"

"Better fuckin' not be," Nick grumbled, lifting his head up. He was not happy when he looked at her cards, however.

"Wow, a royal flush," Pete said in amazement. He had been playing poker for a long time now and very rarely saw a royal flush. Sarah certainly was on a role. "That's the highest you can get."

"Sarah wins again," Luke announced the obvious.

Sarah smiled widely and gathered up her winnings. She was beginning to love this game even further. By now, she had about 200 pretzels, which created quite a large pile.

"Okay, okay!" Nick held his hand up. "I'll play one more time, but if this happens again, I'm done!"

Pete eyed him a little suspiciously, but nodded.

It was Sarah's turn to shuffle the cards but she didn't know how, so Luke helped her. She gave everyone (including herself) two cards each.

Pete checked his cards and could not see himself winning yet. "Check."

Luke decided to raise the stakes. "Raise ten pretzels."

"Call," Pete said, pushing in ten pretzels of his own.

"Stick!" Sarah announced gleefully.

Carlos then stood at the doorway to check on his daughter when his eyes widened slightly at the amount of pretzels she had in front of her.

Carlos could not help but give a small smile, glad to see his daughter happy. He always did his best to shield her from the outside world, leaving her bored inside the cabin. He only did it because he loved her.

Not wanting to interrupt, Carlos walked back into the living room, allowing Sarah to continue playing poker.

Nick decided to take on a risky move. He was feeling pretty confident this time around. With a sly smirk, he pushed all of his pretzels forward. "I raise all fifty of my pretzels."

Pete raised his eyebrow. Nick was pretty bad at poker as it was, so why would he do something like that?

The twenty-six-year-old turned back to his uncle. "And yes, I'm sure."

Luke turned towards his best friend for a moment, unsure if he was bluffing or not. Like Pete, he knew Nick was bad at poker.

Luke decided to fold on this game. He placed his cards onto the table. 'I'll fold."

"I'll call," Pete said, pushing forward fifty pretzels.

Sarah was now unsure if she wanted to call or fold. She had been winning so far but how long would her luck last?

Despite that, she had been taught that quitting was never a good thing, so she agreed with Pete. "I'll call too."

Since Sarah and Pete had called, and Luke had folded, the third round of betting was over. Everyone with the exception of Luke picked up their cards.

It came to the end of the game and it was time to see the winner who would receive one hundred and fifty pretzels.

Pete took out his cards and placed them onto the table. "I got a flush."

Nick closed his eyes in satisfaction. For the first time possibly ever, he had gotten a higher hand than his uncle. "Full house! Hell yeah!"

"I got four of the same!" Sarah announced, meaning that she'd gotten four-of-a-kind. She was beaming widely, although she wouldn't react like Nick in case she lost.

Pete tried his best to contain his laughter, fearing it would drive Nick over the edge. He turned back towards his nephew and decided to point out the obvious. "Well Nick, looks like you're bust."

Nick looked in completely shock whilst staring towards Sarah's cards. Without saying anything, he lifted up her arm and checked inside her sleeves, only to find no hidden cards inside. He stood up away from the table and proceeded to leave the kitchen in silence. Either he accepted his defeat or simply left to go and scream in a pillow (probably the latter).

"Is Nick mad at me?" Sarah asked a little sadly.

"No, he ain't mad at you, Sarah," Luke assured, gently placing his hand upon her shoulder. "Nick just doesn't like losing games."

Sarah wanted to ask why Nick had checked her sleeves, but decided not to. "What were your cards?"

"I only got one pair," Luke answered, flipping his two cards over after he had left the game. "A good thing I folded too."

"Well, looks like Sarah's on a winning role," Pete admitted, raising a slight grin as he gathered up the cards and handed them over to Luke now that it was his turn to deal.

"I've actually never played this game until today," Sarah responded.

"'Beginners luck,' my daddy used to say," Pete explained, accepting his two cards after they were dealt out.

The three of them heard a creak from upstairs and looked up. Nick was probably throwing a little tantrum in his room alone.

The trio ignored him and proceeded to finish off their game of poker. With one player out, it was time to see who would be the next unfortunate victim to be busted. As they reached the end of the game, Luke and Pete decided to go all in and push forward all of their remaining pretzels. Now it was time to present their cards.

Luke unfolded his cards, revealing a four and a five. "I got a straight."

Pete was the next to unveil his cards. He flipped them over, revealing two sevens. "I got a full house."

Sarah looked slightly nervous. She didn't know how she would react if Luke were the one to get mad at her too. She placed down her cards and Pete took a look with a slightly shocked expression.

"A straight flush," Pete praised, placing his cards down onto the table now that he had nothing left to bet with. "Well, I better go and check up on Nick. Good playing a game with you, Sarah."

Luke was also busted and decided to go and keep watch for a while, allowing Alvin to take a rest for a while and keep Rebecca company. He turned back towards Sarah before he left and congratulated her on a job well done. "Good game, Sarah. We should play more often. Enjoy your winnings."

After this, Sarah gathered up all her winnings into a bowl and went into the living room to share them with the others. Today had probably been the most fun she has had since she and her father had left their home and met up with the others. Maybe she could play again with them again, and this time, maybe get her father to join as well.

_Two Months Later_

Sarah wandered around the ski lodge after dinner. She'd had a lot of fun helping Sarita decorate the Christmas tree, but there wasn't much else to do here. She was walking around the downstairs area, looking for something to entertain herself. She looked on the kitchen counter and saw an unopened deck of cards.

Sarah smiled, remembering her winnings at poker those couple of months ago. But now Pete was dead, unfortunately, so he wasn't available anymore. But the girl in the rose-tinted glasses scanned around the room and noticed her new friend coming back in from talking to Walter.

"Hey, Clementine!" she chirped, running over to the younger girl. "Look what I found!"

Clementine raised a slight smile as she made her way over towards her new best friend. She only joined the group a week ago and that was only due to the fact they thought her bite mark was from a walker, but in the end, they discovered she was telling the truth and it was in fact a dog bite.

Clementine took a seat on the opposite side from Sarah. "Hey Sarah. What did you find?"

"I found some cards on the counter there," Sarah explained, pointing at said area. "Do you wanna play poker with me? We can get other people to play too!"

"I guess I could play a game, it's a little boring around here." Clementine admitted, getting back up out of the table as she proceeded towards the living room area where a couple of their group were speaking with one another.

Sarah could not contain her excitement. She really was looking forward to playing poker again with Luke and Nick, and this time, she had Clementine to play with them too! They had nothing to bet with this time, of course, so they would have to simply play for fun.

Clementine returned after a couple of minutes with Nick and Carlos behind her (which was surprising since Carlos was not one to play games often and Nick almost lost his temper last time. He sat down in the same seat she was in moments ago, Nick sat down beside her whilst Carlos sat by Sarah. "Your dad and Nick said they would play. I asked the others too, but Alvin and Rebecca are sleeping, Luke and Kenny are bringing in supplies, and Walter and Sarita are cleaning up."

"Okay, Sarah, please do us a favor and _not_ win every game this time!" Nick teased. He and Sarah did have a good relationship and looked out for one another, he was just upset about losing.

Sarah only winked.

"Win every game?" Clementine repeated with a grin across her face. She never thought Sarah would be one to win every game.

"I'll deal first," Carlos stated, taking the cards and shuffling them fastly before he began to hand them out. He gave everyone two cards-including himself-and now the game of poker had began.

"I check," said Nick, looking rather confident...a little too confident.

"Me too," Clementine said, keeping her eyes covered from behind her cards.

"Check," Carlos spoke almost like a robot.

"Check," Sarah added.

"This would be a little more fun with something to bet," Nick spoke up.

"Not like money matters anymore," Clementine responded.

"We bet with pretzels back at the cabin," Sarah pointed out as she took a card from the deck.

"Oh," Clementine nodded in agreement.

After a couple of moments, the four of them reached the end of the end of the game and it was time to reveal their cards. Since Carlos was the dealer for this round, he decided to be the first to reveal his cards. "I got three of a kind."

Nick only stared at him for a moment before dropping his cards. Sarah scooted closer to her father just in case.

"I only got one fuckin' pair," Nick grumbled.

"Nick, please watch your language," Carlos requested in a somewhat warning tone. He did not want his daughter inheriting those words.

"I got a full house!" Sarah exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to what Nick had said.

Clementine was the last to reveal her own cards. She placed her guards down, revealing two Queen's on the table matching with another two Queen's on the table. She leaned back and folded her arms together. "I got four of a kind."

"Yay, Clem!" Sarah placed her cards down and clapped her hands. "You won!"

Nick, however, placed his head and his hands and began to mumble quite the colorful vocabulary to himself.

Carlos chuckled in response. Not too long ago, he was extremely distrustful of Clementine and warned her not to go near Sarah, but now he trusted her as one of their own and happily accepted her into their group. "Well done, Clementine."

Walter had approached the four of them and decided to investigate on what they were doing. Sarah liked Walter as a friend and he was such a nice man. He placed his hands to his hips and smiled. "Ahh, I see you're all playing poker, a very remarkable game. Matthew was looking everywhere for those cards."

"Clem just won!" Sarah exclaimed, pointing to her younger friend, who was grinning widely and proudly. "Maybe tomorrow we can all play one big game! It would be lots of fun!"

"That sounds a good idea. Give's all of us a chance to socialize," Walter agreed, but before long, he had to excuse himself to go and help Sarita wash up.

For a little while long, the four of them continued playing friendly game, and before they knew it, Kenny and Luke had joined in. Since both groups had met one another and were now staying here for the night, they had all become good friends. Maybe their groups could keep together as one. Sarah hoped that would be true.

Although they were no longer living in the cabin and they lost Pete, both groups had the feeling everything was going to be just fine as long as they kept together.

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That was...long. XD And fun to write! Thanks again to Assassin's Creed Master since he wrote a big part of this story as well. Please leave feedback, and I will roleplay (RP) if you are interested!


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